[rcoe]

Just brought home my 2016 SS. The airbag light is on, previous owner said it came on after he tried installing some recaro seats.

I pulled both seats and all the plugs are good, I can see where the main harness from the seat to body have been taken apart, but all the connections to the various components appear not to have been messed with at all. Both of the main yellow connectors appear to be in perfect shape and making good connections.

I think he might have just ran the recaros without anything being connected. Would this have set a hard code that need to be reset by the dealer even if the seats have bee reconnected? I also have no heated/cooled seats, the light does not even turn on.

[RobertAvitia]

I ran an aftermarket seat with the light on for a long time and when it came time to sell the car, I installed the stock seat back with the airbags back in the car and once I did the light went away.

I recommend making sure everything is plugged in and secure and unplugging the battery for 30 min. That should clear the light

[rcoe]

Thinking it had nothing to do with the seats. Brought home a snapon scanner and it is reading a B0016 code saying left roof rail air bag impedance high. The rest of the airbags are all in the 2-4 ohm range this one is reading 10ohms.

Now to find where the connections are for this air bag, thinking they might come down the B pillar.

[Aquarius]

in my experiences, the light is on because it is not sensing the correct resistance for the air bag. It can usually be fixed by wiring a resistor into the appropriate wires on the harness.

[rcoe]

Originally Posted by Aquarius

in my experiences, the light is on because it is not sensing the correct resistance for the air bag. It can usually be fixed by wiring a resistor into the appropriate wires on the harness.

This is exactly what it is.

The question is, where is the harness connector from the drivers side upper rail airbag?

[RobertAvitia]

So now it’s no longer the seat? It’s a different air bag throwing the light?

[rcoe]

Originally Posted by RobertAvitia

So now it’s no longer the seat? It’s a different air bag throwing the light?

The previous owner told me it happened when he swapped seats, but he was wrong.

Snapon scanner says it is the left side roof rail bag and real time monitoring shows it having a 10ohm resistance.

[RobertAvitia]

At this point, I would take it to a dealer and have them look into it but don’t mention that the seats were ever taken out. See what they find and you never know, the previous owner could of done something else that’s hiding

[cam765]

Just want to add some further clarification if you're still looking into this issue.

B0016 (symptom byte 0D for high resistance) will trigger when more than 4.2 ohms is measured. My recommendation is to confirm this symptom byte first.
- Bytes 02 or 0E very often indicate a CPA connector that is improperly seated and causing the shorting bars inside the connector to short the control circuits together.
- Bytes 04 or 0D often indicate terminal fretting or connectors that are not seated correctly, but not interfering with the shorting bars.

In either case, it may be a good idea to check the connector for the roof rail airbag. Look for a condition like this one below, where the connector is not fully seated (in this case, this is for a seat belt retractor. Same CPA connector style for roof rail airbags though). Unfortunately, these are a little tricky to get to as the connector is very rearward in the vehicle. You'll need to remove the A, B, and C-pillar trims, possibly the sun visor too, so you can lower the headliner just enough on the left side so you can see the connector.

[SomeGeoffGuy]

I think you need a BCM flash to get everything working correctly. I know for a fact that you need a flash to get the Recaros working, so maybe previous owner had them installed and then had the car flashed, then pulled the seats to make a few bucks extra. Dealer should be able to fix it.

-Geoff

[rcoe]

Originally Posted by cam765

Just want to add some further clarification if you're still looking into this issue.

B0016 (symptom byte 0D for high resistance) will trigger when more than 4.2 ohms is measured. My recommendation is to confirm this symptom byte first.
- Bytes 02 or 0E very often indicate a CPA connector that is improperly seated and causing the shorting bars inside the connector to short the control circuits together.
- Bytes 04 or 0D often indicate terminal fretting or connectors that are not seated correctly, but not interfering with the shorting bars.

In either case, it may be a good idea to check the connector for the roof rail airbag. Look for a condition like this one below, where the connector is not fully seated (in this case, this is for a seat belt retractor. Same CPA connector style for roof rail airbags though). Unfortunately, these are a little tricky to get to as the connector is very rearward in the vehicle. You'll need to remove the A, B, and C-pillar trims, possibly the sun visor too, so you can lower the headliner just enough on the left side so you can see the connector.

Attachment 1082363

This is the route I need to go as I think it might be in the connector as well, just sucks to need to pull all that down was hoping the connector might be behind the b pillar or someplace easier to get at.

This might end up being a winter project if I am going to need to pull the whole headliner down.

[cam765]

I've had the glorious experience of replacing the seat belts and roof rail airbags in my Camaro. Thankfully you do not actually need to drop the headliner to replace these airbags, but you do need to remove all the plastic components I listed. The sun visors were definitely the most challenging for whatever reason. I had the hardest time lining things back up during the reinstall for those. Since you mainly want to drop the rear portion of the headliner, you honestly might not have to touch the sun visor or even possibly the A-pillar.

Thankfully, your airbag is showing some resistance so it isn't the case where it deployed and never got changed, so it should still be functional in an accident. The SRS system is very sensitive to voltage and resistance changes for obvious reasons, so you probably have a partial connection, or maybe a wire is pinched enough somewhere increasing the resistance too much. Good luck.

[rcoe]

Originally Posted by cam765

I've had the glorious experience of replacing the seat belts and roof rail airbags in my Camaro. Thankfully you do not actually need to drop the headliner to replace these airbags, but you do need to remove all the plastic components I listed. The sun visors were definitely the most challenging for whatever reason. I had the hardest time lining things back up during the reinstall for those. Since you mainly want to drop the rear portion of the headliner, you honestly might not have to touch the sun visor or even possibly the A-pillar.

Thankfully, your airbag is showing some resistance so it isn't the case where it deployed and never got changed, so it should still be functional in an accident. The SRS system is very sensitive to voltage and resistance changes for obvious reasons, so you probably have a partial connection, or maybe a wire is pinched enough somewhere increasing the resistance too much. Good luck.

Thanks for the info.

So the wires do run out toward the rear, guessing down one of the rear pillars?

[cam765]

Yes, so the wires from the roof rail airbag connector are part of the giant body harness and run down from the top of the "C-pillar" (or "rear door panel", however you view it) to the base of the rear seat, then travel towards the front of the vehicle along the floor. They eventually end up under the center console where the SDM plugs in to the body harness.

I tried searching online, but this is the best diagram I could find. I circled the airbag connector (B6) and the body harness is identified in red. If you remove the rear plastic C-pillar, I'm sure even that may give you good access to the connector if you can pull the headliner down just enough without creasing it.

I also included a diagram of the roof rail airbag, but just note this is for the right side. I circled the connector just to show you how far rearward this connector is.